International Women's Day: Being your authentic self is your greatest strength – Gunter

Dawn Gunter is the COO of Monmouthshire Building Society, a role she has held for more than eight years, after working in financial institutions such as Sainsbury’s Bank, Legal & General and Principality Building Society.

Here, Dawn reflects on her career, how being a woman in financial services has changed her view on her career and what she’s learned about her ‘greatest strength’ during her working life.

I didn’t grow up imagining I’d become the chief operating officer of a successful building society – or any kind of leader, if I’m honest. In Troedyrhiw, a small village just outside Merthyr Tydfil, ambition came in practical shapes: steady work, stability, maybe a decent job opportunity if you were lucky.

University wasn’t part of my story. A carefully mapped-out career wasn’t either. I simply took a job.

But life has a way of placing people in your path who see something in you that you haven’t yet recognised in yourself.

Early inspirations and silencing doubt

For me, that person was my first boss – a formidable woman, especially in the male-dominated world of financial services in 1989. She was sharp, confident and unapologetically capable, and she took a risk on me. She believed in me before I believed in myself, and that changed the entire course of my life.

Looking back now, I realise that belief was the spark that set everything else alight.

I’d love to say that once the door opened, the path was smooth. It wasn’t.

Navigating environments where women were expected to mould themselves into something ‘acceptable’ came with a cost. For years, I worked longer and harder than anyone else, trying to sound different, act different – be different – just to prove I was ‘good enough’.

And honestly – it was exhausting.

It’s taken me most of my career to understand that being my authentic self isn’t a liability – it’s my greatest strength. My background, my lived experiences, my perspective – these aren’t things to hide. They’re the reasons I lead the way I do.

There have been moments of real doubt. Moments when I questioned whether I belonged in the rooms I found myself in. Whether I was capable. Whether I was enough.

I know many women recognise that internal voice – the one that tries to convince you to stay small.

Holding on to confidence

But here’s what I now know: confidence isn’t constant. You don’t need to feel fearless to take a step forward. You just need to take the step, and sometimes that means borrowing belief from someone else until you can build your own.

As I’ve grown as a leader, I’ve held on to one thing: the responsibility to create for others what my first leader created for me.

To help people find their voice. To help them step into spaces they never thought they deserved. To remind them of their worth when they can’t quite see it themselves.

This is where the passion for my work now lies, not just in the operational world of my day job, but also in my role as a trustee of the society’s Charitable Foundation.

People ask me why the foundation matters so much to me. It’s simple, I know what it feels like to have someone open a door that transforms everything.

‘Give to Gain’ isn’t just this year’s International Women’s Day theme. When we give our time, our support, our belief, our encouragement, we gain something powerful in return.

We gain connection. We gain shared purpose. We gain the knowledge that we’ve helped someone else rise, and there’s nothing more meaningful than that.

Through the foundation and the leadership roles I’ve had, I’ve seen first-hand how opportunity can transform lives. Especially for women and girls who, like me all those years ago, may not yet see their own potential.

If I could offer one message on International Women’s Day, it would be this:

Be courageous.

Be yourself.

Take the step – even if your voice shakes.

Because you never know who’s watching. You never know whose life you might inspire. And you never know what doors might open for you when you lean in to your authentic self.